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Definition: mono

(2) (Mono) An open source cross platform implementation of Microsoft's .NET environment from Xamarin, which is a Microsoft company. Mono includes a just-in-time (JIT) runtime engine for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android and compilers for C# and Visual Basic. An assembler for the intermediate language (ILasm) is also provided. Mono compilers for other languages are available, including F#, Java, JavaScript, Scala, Python, Lua and PHP. See JIT compiler.

A Monkey on the Move
Meaning "monkey" in Spanish, Mono was developed by Ximian, Inc., which was founded in 1999 as Helix Code by Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman. Ximian was acquired by Novell in 2003, and Mono debuted a year later. After Attachmate bought Novell in 2011, it had little interest in Mono, and its developers moved to Xamarin, de Icaza's new company. In 2016, Microsoft acquired Xamarin to keep the .NET platform expanding. For more information, visit www.mono-project.com. See CLI, .NET Framework and DotGNU Portable.NET.